Director, Democratizing Foreign Policy @quincyinst. Foreign influence, $ in politics. Co-author of The Trillion Dollar War Machine (order at link in bio).
Joined May 2011
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11 Nov 2025
Today is the day—The Trillion Dollar War Machine is out! Pick up your copy at the link in bio or below 👇
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I have never been prouder to call this man my boss. I’m a Florida Gator by birth and after every third quarter we sing, “You could stand me up at the gates of hell but I won’t back down” He lives that. He does what’s right for 🇺🇸. He’s earned our support.
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I have fought the neocons and warmongers in Washington for more than 25 years. Throughout, they have tried to silence, discredit, slander, and cancel me. Only recently, however, have they tried to deport me.
At least, that appears to have been the aim of a hit piece in Bari Weiss’s The Free Press, which claimed that Marco Rubio’s State Department was “investigating” me for allegedly seeking to “undermine the U.S.”—presumably because of my opposition to war with Iran.
Yet just hours later, the State Department issued a statement to reporters clarifying that “the State Department has no plans to revoke the green card of Mr. Parsi at this time.” Nor did it provide any confirmation for the central premise of the Free Press story—that an investigation of me existed in the first place.
So here’s what I think happened.
Read the full piece on my Substack: tritaparsi.substack.com/p/so…
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Ben Freeman retweeted
“It's a well-known trick in Washington that you can dodge cooling-off periods by ‘consulting’ and doing other things behind the scenes to exploit your connections on behalf of your clients." @BenFreemanDC
The Pentagon's push to weaken lobbying rules in the FY 2027 NDAA proves that the institutional drive for war is sustained by a continuous loop of private profit and public influence. responsiblestatecraft.org/re… @stavroulapabst @RStatecraft
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Ben Freeman retweeted
NEW: Lawmakers target private equity’s growing chokehold on arms industry
PE-backed defense firms are less stable, more costly for taxpayers
@stavroulapabst
responsiblestatecraft.org/de…
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Ben Freeman retweeted
Jun 11
Disappointed to see that the Sec. 224 provision from the House NDAA appears to have made it into the Senate version. We urge Senators to strip it from the Bill during the upcoming floor consideration.
Jun 11
NDAA ‘27 to Senate floor. On Middle East:
• Calls for conditioning aid to Lebanese army based on willingness to counter Hezbollah
• Establishes US-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative
• Directs initiative to bolster US defense cooperation Abraham Accords members
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Jun 11
Honored to have my comments included in the press release for the new Warren, Blumenthal, & Khanna bill to limit private equity's ability to profiteer off of defense contractors. Read the full press release and bill below to find out why this is must pass legislation 👇
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Jun 11
Press release: banking.senate.gov/newsroom/…
Full text of the Critical Defense Ownership Review Act: banking.senate.gov/imo/media…
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Ben Freeman retweeted
Jun 11
The head of a major DC think tank that has the ear of the president is effectively calling for assassination of an American journalist whose views he doesn’t like. This is where we are now.
Jun 9
Ali Khamenei is gone. Yahya Sinwar is gone. Hassan Nasrallah is gone.
Now the most public advocate for the elimination of Israel may be Peter Beinart.
We’ll see how Mojtaba Khamenei and Erdogan evolve. For now, Peter is out front. Mazal Tov.
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Ben Freeman retweeted
Yes some of this reflects the scope of the work but it also reflects the premium that Israel has to pay for the total cratering of public opinion in the US in response to Israel’s military actions. The Saudi comparison is deliberate. After MBS ordered the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi Arabia paid $18 million to Qorvis over a six month period, in part reflecting the premium it had to pay to whitewash this assassination. A fist bump or two later, Saudi mostly succeeded in rebuilding its relationships. Israel today finds itself more isolated than Saudi ever was. And another major difference here is that Israel has to really win back public opinion rather than mostly just elite opinion. That’s a tall order given that almost half of all Americans say Israel does more to harm US interests than help.
The Israeli government is now paying former Trump campaign manager and Salem Media executive Brad Parscale *$46 million* in one year.
For some perspective: Saudi Arabia pays Ballard — one of the most connected firms in Trump's Washington — $60,000 a month.
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Ben Freeman retweeted
The Israeli government is now paying former Trump campaign manager and Salem Media executive Brad Parscale *$46 million* in one year.
For some perspective: Saudi Arabia pays Ballard — one of the most connected firms in Trump's Washington — $60,000 a month.
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Ben Freeman retweeted
Congress wants to deepen U.S.-Israel military integration through Section 224 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). From AI and cyber warfare to weapons co-production and data-sharing, this proposal would significantly expand defense cooperation. Take action below.⬇️
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Jun 10
Key provision buried at the very end of the just released House Defense funding bill 👇
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Jun 10
This puts the lie to arguments made by supporters of the US-Israel defense industrial integration proposal (Section 224) who said we need it to ensure the US gets Israeli tech. Spoiler: we already buy it & we don't need a pro-Israel "executive agent" inside DoD to get it.
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Jun 10
House Approps just released the Pentagon budget & it holds to the President's request. Combined with news that a third reconciliation bill (where the President wanted $350 billion for DoD) is a non-starter & the path to a $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget is gone.
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Jun 10
Here's the House Defense Approps bill if you'd like to nerd out with me: appropriations.house.gov/new…
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Ben Freeman retweeted
Jun 9
The Defense Intelligence Agency has reportedly raised its counterintelligence threat assessment for Israel to “critical” — its highest level, now placing the U.S. ally above some adversarial nations.
American personnel in Israel discovered spyware on their phones. Targets of the reported eavesdropping include Steve Witkoff, Trump’s top Iran negotiator, Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon’s top policy official, and Michael DiMino IV, the Pentagon’s senior Middle East policy director.
The DIA report also details Israeli military officers planting listening devices at DIA headquarters in 2021 — and Israel’s Shin Bet internal security service attempting to bug a Secret Service vehicle last year.
Drop Site’s @JulianAndreone hits the Hill to get lawmakers’ reactions.
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Ben Freeman retweeted
Jun 10
“It's a well-known trick in Washington that you can dodge cooling-off periods by ‘consulting’ and doing other things behind the scenes to exploit your connections on behalf of your clients" -- @BenFreemanDC
responsiblestatecraft.org/re…
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Ben Freeman retweeted
🚨🚨Ex-CIA Paul Pillar: So far, Section 622 of the intel bill has received less attention than Section 224 of the defense bill. No doubt Tom Cotton wants it this way because it brings Israel into our intel system in ways no foreign country ever should.
responsiblestatecraft.org/us…
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Ben Freeman retweeted
Jun 9
Netanyahu is lobbying for Section 224 in the national defense bill, a provision that quietly expands U.S.-Israel military cooperation and weapons development with almost zero oversight.
The American people do not want more U.S. military aid to Israel. We must defeat Section 224.
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Ben Freeman retweeted
The Israeli government has hired Daniel Rosenberg, the producer of Spike Lee’s “Inside Man,” on a $900,000 contract to produce pro-Israel social media content to “influence the U.S. public.”
Rosenberg’s firm, Piro, set to hire a director and hold casting for on-camera talent.
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Ben Freeman retweeted
The Washington Post published an opinion piece defending Section 224 and US integration of Israeli military tech without disclosing that the author is the founder of 1948 Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in Israeli defense startups
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